Campus Chronicles with Ben Parker & Braeden Rigney

Last weekend was one that everyone on the Griff team was looking forward to - travelling to Colorado to play the Air Force is always a trip we mark on the calendar. This is especially true for me as I had missed the previous two visits here due to injury and was really excited to go to Colorado as I had never been there before and had heard nothing but great things about the trip.

Unfortunately, we did not get the results we were hoping for as Air Force swept the weekend in two very close games. This was an important weekend because of how close the standings are in our conference and we really let some much needed points slip away.

We now have four games remaining on our schedule; two against Robert Morris and two against RIT. The unfortunate results of last weekend have provided a significant amount of motivation for everyone on the team to put in our best effort in all of these remaining games as they could make a very big difference in where we finish at the end of the regular season.

Everyone on our team believes we are good enough to earn a spot to our conference final four tournament and with the regular season winding down, we know how important it is to be at the top of our game heading into playoffs and I have no doubt this will reflect in our play.

As a senior, my time remaining as a member of the hockey team is coming to an abrupt end and there would be no greater ending than to put in a valiant effort to win our conference. The last time we made it to the final weekend of the conference tournament was in my freshman year, where we were beaten by a very tough RIT squad that made it all the way to the Frozen Four.

This has allowed me, as well as the other seniors, to get a first-hand glance at what it takes to win our conference and we all know it will not be an easy task. Our conference has had at times this season three teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation, which is a great indication of how competitive our league has become.

One of our goals all year has been to host a playoff series this year and in order to accomplish this we must have a great final two weekends and with two of the four remaining games at home, this definitely works to our advantage. As I already noted, our conference standings are extremely tight and these last two weekends will be very exciting for our team as we try and finish as high as possible. As always we appreciate your support and hope to see you in the stands as we finish out the regular season.